campo

This past Sunday, my host family and I drove out to a relative's house in the countryside.  Well, in a little villa in the hills called Pichi Pellahuen.  I had been there (and written about it on this blog) before, so I will spare you any redundant details and stick mostly to photos here.  They have a lovely house, but I was looking forward to seeing more of everything outside! The last time I had been there it was freezing cold, but now it's spring, which means that the weather was great and also that there were lots of little animals to see : ) 

kitty in the kitchen

the men doing manly things like target practice

Ok, quick food break. The following two pictures are a fungus that grows only in central and southern Chile, only during a few months of the year.  They're called digueñes ("dee-gwen-yace"), and they are little spongy bubble things about the size of an acorn, white on the outside and orange on the inside.  There are currently people selling digueñes on every street corner in the centro, and there are several ways to eat them. You just kind of break them apart by hand and you can toss them with oil and vinegar as a salad (they don't have much flavor themselves, just a cool spongy texture).  Momma Boots, you would like these! 

some of the tinier ones are still whole, but the rest have been broken into pieces here

For lunch in the campo we had pork, beef, and sausage (and tiny potatoes) that were from their own livestock, and for dinner we had these fish, caught in the river in the nearby town.  Can't get much fresher than that, folks. 

Ok, food break over. To digest, Vlady and Panchi and I wandered around outside.  Well, "wander" is misleading, because there is really just the one street in this little villa, and one tiny little park in the middle of it. So I mean that we walked about 150m to the park benches.

my host fam is quite photogenic

Aaaand back to the house, but I followed around out back as the host-uncle was going about his animal care routine (so: animals ahead). 

he cuts up grass (by hand) from one part of his yard to feed all his critters

grass harvest

oh yeah, we collected an egg! 

Fun story re: this egg, actually.  I was proudly carrying it back to the kitchen to present to lady of the house, but noticed that everybody was outside on the sidewalk.  I walked out there with my egg and was introduced to three new people who had dropped by.  One of them was a politician running for office, and they were greeting constituents and passing out propaganda.  I awkwardly did the traditional greeting kiss, egg in hand, and the politician man jokingly asked if I was the one who had produced that lovely egg.  Cue awkward laughter on my end, and that was that.  I later learned that man is Mario Venegas, the Representative for this district in the National Congress.  Very well known, very recognizable (even if only by his chipmunk cheeks), and currently running for his second reelection (in his 7th year in office). So, there ya go, I had a very odd exchange with a semi-significant Chilean politician.  Now on to the lambs.

There were a few little lambs in this flock, and host great uncle picked up the tiniest one to show us how big they actually are up close.  Check out that lamb! 

SO SOFT

This next picture, you will notice, is taken from pretty close up.  I actually crouched down amongst the sheep until they were no longer scared of me and would eat the grass in my outstretched hand.  I would have appreciated a little more camaraderie, but it's a good start, guys. 

And these last two pictures are included only to show the shakes of a lambkins tail, and me on a horse.  I didn't really ride it anywhere, we just asked a guy in the street if I could get on his horse and he said yes, so I got up there.  Great times in the campo!